You wouldn’t borrow a friend’s car without asking. Nor would you take a dip in your neighbor’s pool without an invitation. And you certainly wouldn’t add a customer to your email contact list without first getting permission.

In all of these scenarios, it’s not only polite to ask first, it’s expected. And depending on where you live, not getting a green light before you act is against the law.

In case you haven’t heard, Canada’s new anti-spam legislation (CASL) went into effect on July 1, 2014.

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Essentially, this means that businesses or organizations must obtain “opt-in” consent to send commercial emails and certain types of social media messages to or from a Canadian computer, mailbox or network. Also, all electronic marketing messages need to clearly and prominently identify the sender, including contact information, and provide an unsubscribe option. Those that don’t comply risk serious penalties: Up to $1 million for individuals and up to $10 million for businesses.

Even if CASL doesn’t affect your business, it serves as a critical reminder of how important it is to get your customers’ permission before adding them to your email marketing list. Along with helping you develop stronger ties to your customers, which results in repeat sales and positive word-of-mouth, permission-based email has better open rates, less spam reports, and is generally more effective.

Still, millions of unrequested emails are sent every day only to sit idle in inboxes, spam filters, and trash bins.

The common misperception is that “if the customer doesn’t want it, they’ll just delete it.” At a fundamental level that may be true. But when you continue to flood inboxes with messages that recipients deem as junk mail, you’re doing a huge disservice to your reputation.